Targeting Cancer Stem Cells with Differentiation Agents as an Alternative to Genotoxic Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Malignant Testicular Germ Cell Tumors.

ABSTRACT: Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are exceptionally sensitive to genotoxic chemotherapy, resulting in a high cure rate for the young men presenting with these malignancies. However, this treatment is associated with significant toxicity, and a subset of malignant TGCTs demonstrate chemoresistance. Mixed nonseminomas often contain pluripotent embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells, the cancer stem cells (CSCs) of these tumors. We hypothesized that differentiation therapy, a treatment strategy which aims to induce differentiation of tumor-propagating CSCs to slow tumor growth, could effectively treat mixed nonseminomas without significant toxicity. The FDA-approved antipsychotic thioridazine and the agricultural antibiotic salinomycin are two drugs previously found to selectively target CSCs, and

SUBMITTER: Loehr AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8122873 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature